The scourge of campus shootings came to Queen Anne on June 5, 2014 when 26-year-old Aaron Ybarra opened fire in Otto Miller Hall. Ybarra wounded three students one of whom, 19-year-old Paul Lee, died. Ybarra was subdued with pepper spray as he tried to reload his gun by 22-year-old SPU student Jon Meis, who restrained him until the arrival of Seattle Police. Meis was treated at the hospital and later released, along with another victim, Thomas Fowler, 24, who suffered pellet wounds to his chest and neck. The third victim, Sarah Williams, 19, was hospitalized after suffering wounds to her abdomen.

The tragic event at Seattle Pacific University astounded Queen Anne residents, the Christian university maintains a generally quiet and peaceful place in the community’s mind. The school’s low profile hides the fact that it is one of Seattle’s oldest institutions of higher learning. SPU is typical of so many seminaries associated with a church and established for the elementary education of congregation children. In fact, Nils Peterson, a member of the Free Methodist Church with which the university is still associated, donated the land for the school as a place for his children. Today Peterson’s farm which originally tumbled down the northern side of Queen Anne is mostly intact and now known as Mount Pleasant Cemetery. …Continue reading “Shooting at SPU, Ross and the Streetcar Barn”→

Emily Inez Denny was born in Seattle in 1853. She was the first white child born in Seattle and the oldest child of pioneers David and Louisa Boren Denny.

Louisa, Madge, David, and Emily Denny ca. 1861

Inez and her sister Madge took classes at the Territorial University when it opened in 1860. Inez later recounted that each pupil had a small slate on which lessons were written, as paper was expensive and in short supply on the frontier. The girls cleaned their slates with a sponge attached to the slate by a string and water kept in a little bottle in their pockets. The boys, on the other hand, often didn’t bother with the sponge and water, but would spit on the slate or lick it off and dry it with a sleeve. …Continue reading “Emily Inez Denny — Seattle Pioneer”→

I was born in Seattle’s Providence Hospital on June 7, 1943. At that time, my parents lived at 1202 Fifth Ave. N. In 1945, we moved into a house at 910 Third Ave. N, where we remained until February 1952. I began school at Warren Avenue Elementary School in 1948. I remember all of my teachers very well. Evelyn Reisig, my fourth grade teacher, was one of my favorites, as it was in her class that I got to listen to the Standard School Broadcasts, kindling a love for music which has not died. Carolyn Silva, my sixth grade teacher, encouraged my reading abilities, and I was often called on to read from the books, our “treat” after studies were over. …Continue reading “Board Member Spotlight – Kim Turner”→